ECONOMIC SOCIOLOGY AND LABOUR TRANSFORMATIONS

The course introduces the students to the key themes, concepts and theoretical perspectives of economic sociology and contributes to the acquisition of a basic sociological culture that fosters an understanding of the dynamics of contemporary societies. Thus, the course aims at providing basic knowledge useful for understanding economic facts as social facts.

At the end of the course students:
- Are familiar with the main terms and concepts used in classical sociology for the study of economic processes and in particular for understanding the rise of capitalism;
- Are familiar with the main themes and concepts used in the "new economic sociology";
- Are able to understand the main interpretative categories of the discipline;
- Are able to use the fundamental concepts to study and to understand sociological researches;
- Are able to analyse and discuss contemporary problems investigated by sociologists, with particular attention to socio-economic phenomena;
- Are familiar with and able to identify phenomena related to social innovation.

It is suggested that students have completed the exam ‘Sociological Theories I’ (or are familiar with the basic concepts and theoretical approaches of sociology).

Three parts form the course.
The first part of the course introduces the main notions useful for the analysis of contemporary economic problems and explores the main themes and approaches of economic sociology. In this part, the focus is on the theme of the economy as an institutional process and on the concept of embeddedness of economic processes in social systems both from a macro-social perspective (with particular attention to Polanyi's work) and from a micro-social perspective (with particular attention to Granovetter's work).
The second part of the course focuses on the main research "tools" used in the field of economic sociology and in particular on the problem of defining research objects, how to construct and use questions in interviews and questionnaires, social network analysis and comparative analysis, and case studies. These topics offer to the students the possibility of understanding how they can apply the perspectives and approaches of economic sociology to specific research problems.
The third and final part of the course is dedicated to topics that have dominated the research agenda of economic sociologists in recent years. The study of cities as actors of economic development, the emerging problems of development for marginal and peri-urban areas, anti-poverty policies, active labour policies, and, finally, social innovation as an emerging strategy for local development will be the focus of the study.
The arguments of the three parts of the course will be directly applied to the analysis of the phenomenon of collaborative spaces (coworking, creative hubs, living labs) through workshops and exercises.

Barbera F., Pais I. (2017), Fondamenti di sociologia economica, Milano: Egea (Capitoli 1, 2, 3, 5, 6, 9, 10, 12, 13, 16, 19, 29, 30, 37)
Other papers will be communicated during classes

The exam covers:
- The understanding of the main themes, concepts, theories and empirical elements discussed during the course;
- The ability to explain clearly key elements and concepts of historical and contemporary debates on economic processes from a sociological perspective;
- The ability to apply concepts and theories to real and concrete cases;
- The ability to critically discuss questions and problems.

For attending students:
Written exam with open questions (50%) and evaluation of the work done during the course (presentations, participation in discussions, written exercises) (50%).
For non-attending students:
Written exam with open questions (70%) and oral exam (30%).

The course will be based on lectures (during the lessons or through pre-recorded contents made available online) and workshops (for weekly exercises), therefore the expected attendance for students is 2 lectures per week, integrated with homework and viewing of online lectures. One weekly lesson will be held in plenary mode at the presence of all the attending students and will be used to deepen the topics of the course introduced by the pre-recorded lessons. A second weekly lesson will involve the students, divided in two groups, and will be structured in laboratory mode to apply the concepts previously introduced by online and in presence lessons.
During the plenary lessons, the main themes, concepts and theories will be introduced also with the use of PowerPoint presentations and different documents (photos, videos, etc.). Here, the professor is available to answer general questions about the course content, study materials, examination methods, etc.
For the workshop/laboratory meetings, students will be organised into small groups and they will have to explore and apply concepts and present their main outputs in dialogue with the professor. The workshops are designed to aid understanding, stimulate critical analysis and discussion of contemporary issues and problems in the light of the theoretical and empirical contribution of economic sociology.

Italian

written and oral

This subject deals with topics related to the macro-area "Cities, infrastructure and social capital" and contributes to the achievement of one or more goals of U. N. Agenda for Sustainable Development